Open-ear headphones are gaining a lot of popularity these days due to their excellent comfort, while they make you aware of your surroundings when enjoying music, which even companies like SIVGA, a Chinese audio company that’s more well known for its high-end wooden style planar headphones, has made its second generation open ear headphones – the SIVGA SO2.
While I have no prior experience to the previous generation, the closest reference I had while reviewing this earbud is the soundcore AeroFit that I recently reviewed, and boy, not only the SIVGA delivers much better sound than the soundcore, but it is also priced $30 lower, which makes it a very compelling choice for anyone looking for a good sounding open-ear headphones.
The SIVGA SO2 comes in a very bulky charging case which isn’t pocket friendly if you wear jeans, I got the White color model which looks more like Beige color, it is a nice and elegant color that makes it a good fashion statement, the bright color also hides away scratches well if you don’t look at it closely,
The headphones are noticeably larger than the soundcore I own, it also doesn’t have an adjustable ear loop so putting it on can be a little wonky at times, but it is managable once you get used to it. I do love that SIVGA has added a metallic plate on the housing and that also serves as the capacitive touch area for media controls.
The highlight of the SIVGA SO2 is its large 14mm PU Titanium Diaphragm Dynamic Drivers, which helps to deliver clear vocals and drum beats according to SIVGA’s marketing material, this is very perceivable once you start playing pop music such as Adele’s Rolling in the Deep, where drum beats in the song is clearly heard with no distortion, while Adele’s vocals doesn’t get drowned in the chorus along with the acoustics, it sounds unbeliveably good for an open-ear headphones and I daresay that you can even perceive a slight bass in some songs.
Another area where the SIVGA SO2 shines is instrumentals, I love how detailed the guitar strums sound on Train’s Hey, Soul Sister, Joe Hisaishi’s music arrangement is beautifully presented with every string instrument and drum beats playing with absolute clarity.
The SIVGA SO2 offers up to 10 hours of listening time on a single charge, which will easily last you through a work day if you intend to use it for music listening and tackling conference calls, the charging case will offer two additional charges which totals up to 30 hours of listening time.
One gripe I have with the SIVGA SO2 is the lack of a companion app for customizing the earbuds’ touch controls, this is an essential feature which even some budget wireless earbuds already have, though I’ll forgive the company briefly at this time for its headphones’ excellent sound quality.
Overall, the SIVGA SO2 is a simple open-ear headphones that delivers great sound quality for $69.90 or RM229 in Malaysia, it is a compelling value for those who understands the benefits of such headphones and don’t want to break the bank for an expensive pair.